Becoming Astrid's reviews
Media reviews
New York Times
Erik Molberg Hansen?s relaxed camera movements and fuzzy-soft compositions are quite beautiful, and the performances ?including the superb Trine Dyrholm as the baby?s Danish foster mother? are pitch-perfect. Best of all is the magnetic August, whose open, mobile features can slide from plain to lovely with just a shift in the light and whose embrace of the character is a joy to watch.
Variety
While the narrative is framed by scenes that show the late-life Astrid (Maria Fahl Vikander) receiving birthday greetings and fan mail from scores of young readers, the majority of the film depicts her from age 16 to her early 20s, enduring a coming-of-age more challenging than one would have expected from a young woman of her time and upbringing.
The Hollywood Reporter
The international moniker suggests the film will also say something about how Lindgren became the famous writer we all know. But the script, written by the director and her regular collaborator Kim Fupz Aakeson, one of Denmark's most prolific screenwriters, doesn't quite deliver on that implicit promise.
Screen Daily
While the film is certainly not subtle (the tinkling score fine tunes the emotional engineering of the most emotive scenes), this tale of a woman struggle to be reunited with her child is credibly heart-wrenching, thanks to August?s eye-catching central performance.
Los Angeles Times
The film?s occasional flatness of tone isn?t always well-used ? these may be the raw materials for a classic Hollywood weepie, but sometimes you want to see filmmaking, not a camera pointed in the general direction of who?s talking.
Festival Internacional de Cine de Lanzarote